Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Outcomes Project
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Epidemiology and Outcome from Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest.
IRAS ID
134959
Contact name
Gavin Perkins
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Warwick
Research summary
Cardiac arrest is the term used to describe sudden cessation of heart function. After cardiac arrest occurs, blood stops being circulated to the vital organs and consciousness is lost within seconds. Unless resuscitation is started promptly death will occur within a few minutes.
Each year about 30,000 people receive resuscitation for an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) in the United Kingdom (UK). Only one in every twenty people that have a cardiac arrest survive to go home from hospital.
Information collected by the Department of Health has shown there to be wide geographical variation in the number of people that survive an OHCA. In simple terms people in some parts of the country are twice or three times more likely to survive than in other areas.
This project will try to find out the reasons behind such big differences in outcome. It will develop a standardised approach to collecting information about OHCA and for finding out if a resuscitation attempt was successful.
The project will use statistics to explain the reasons why survival rates vary between regions. It will provide feedback to ambulance services to allow ambulance services to learn from one another and promote better outcomes for patients.
REC name
South Central - Oxford C Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/SC/0361
Date of REC Opinion
6 Aug 2013
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion